New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-09-11
A YANKEE ARCADIA.
A PLACE WITHOUT CRIME OR GREED.
GLIMpsEs OF LIFE IN OLD NANTUCKET.


house undeended, windows open doors unlocked.
The venerable mariner who is ending his days IN tne
pesceu pursuit OF peding Pie will tinkle bis iEtie
bell and 90 away the kerosene-ol man, melancnoy
Yankee Romeo with droop, o sigh and weeav mus
tache win peer through the wire door ana sadly lare
on Billy Clark the Town Crer, will squswk n's nsh
horn at the gate and proclaim in an ardent tremo'o
hi. antioue news-but not a soul will enter that
virginia. abode. There no thieves In Nantucket
not even those polite ones who elsewhere neece the
summer visitor In q manner exasperatingiy legal.
The iah has so fe guests that the authorities nave
to do I'll cir best to cheer those who do degn to occupy
its comfortable apartments. The embezzling bank
casbier-who has lust had his sentence commuteJ at
the request of his sympathetic fellowcitizens-re-
ceves his friends and conducts business enterprises
within its limits with extreme good nature dignity
and success; and the Aforesaid synpsthetic ones
meander MaIn-st. in the twilight. saying to one auo
another that willum Henry is agittin ready to pay
back every cent"
Sometimes one of the two three gentle policemen
who lounge on Nantucket streets will parayze with
contemptuous glance too hilarious summer VISITOR OF
the male and green years. but ths Ii all they nave
TO do except to coddle stray babies and yawn on
corners Perhaps these islanders are too phlegmatic
a race to feel the temper that draws blood however
this may be- there has been murder here Tor forty
years. The court that sits for day so every sum-
mer in an upper room in the school-housc might az
we'll 20 on picnic for all 1t has to do.
There Is certain marked condescenson to foreign.
ers about all true NaDtucketers. You are wretched
worm Of the dust of course they haven't any use
for you but they will regard you with naughty toer
alton so long as you don't put on airs" you REQ
ognize the miserable fate which made you an inha0'
liant of another part OF the globe and are very meek
about it, they will enter into afable relations With
you-and they may not. They may consider you
popl nice" or a "fovl-womaD" too much gwen to
polonays and poloneezers. as old Captain - says
there Is only q chance for you with the balance on
the wrong side. They don't even care tor your
money; they don't particularly want you to board
with them. They don't serve you they help you
OUT; and your washerwoman, when at rare intervals
you can secure her. entertains you with polite con-
versation and apologies tor not wearing Der best
clothes when sbe does you the favor 10 visit you AT
Milk they sterny draw the line There be times wben
you might cast yourself on your knees before the
Milknan and weep galore-and all In vain The sum
mer visitors are many the herds small and il the
Nantuokster for sbstruse reason didn't want to
buy another cow he wouldn't, not II there were NIL
lions In It, Thus comeh TO pass that the subject OF
Milk becomes TO the cottager from the outer darkness
of burning and exciting Interest quite out Oh Keep
ing with the fluid itself
All Nantucketers apparently possess the first requi-
site for Aicadia-they are wel-to-do; they get
along" there isn't ragged soul to be seen anywhere
save occasionally the foot OF some bearded
mariner from abroad. Remnants of the fortunes OF
have all sought working space in buster regions ssnd
back into the old island homes the means OF comfort
aud dignity. They come back here TOR their wives,
too for "a of her most distinguished citizens
says: They amt no bansumer wImIn nowhere than
they is in old Nantucket"
When petroleum came to the foie the glory OF the
whaling port went down; there was an exvous OIL
men, young and old factories were destroyed and
homes broken up. Those were the days " hen a
goody let and q comfortable house could be bought
for $50 here Sinoo then Nantr cket has slept; but
she still considers whaling captain being before
whom % King is nothing ar a President only pale
insect. The cap'ns Who still gather In their club
room Of winter nights men OF lofty manners and
q horriying capacity for yarns concerning the days
that are no more. They good men, too, with
n nds as sound their constitutions and with the
salt of the sea in their humor. Lazy are the lives
they lead they sail sometimes they go biue-hshing.
occasionally they nspect their lobster pots and they
Yarn Yarn, Yarn. In winter when the storms crash
ON the seaward side OF Nantucket there come some
times alarms wreck to tho watch tower in the town
trom the litesavng station perched just above the
wb,rling surf. Then do the cap'ns desert Their big
stove and with all the rest OF the abebodied inhab-
itants In oil sorts Of vehicles beat up the moors
against the wind 20 the sea- Wild a-e the storms On
that ard aide opd few escape who are cast away
on those sands but they are lost II is not tor want
OF fierce courage and tender cate In the men oil Man.
tucket Theu IL is that the clean aud wholesome
vieor OF the sea s,irs again in their veins.
When n gale does visit the island il is o gale that
neans business; but rs rule Nantucket has mild
and eauable winter weather. Last winter not sleigh
rs brought out and the bare brown moors" had NJ
white mantle Tor their naked oveiness For lovely
they are In every Tho sand and tho damp an
manage between them to nourish such q progeny oil
Leaf ana flower as make the island glorious 10 times Of
blossom. Everything of verdure grows close to the
ground on these moors Ia level caIpet oil ccior. In
a few DAYS they will be of gold, tor under the
September sun hltdoZen varieties OF golden-rod are
beginning glitter Nsntueke surely Is the ceanes
place In the world. Hero are miles OF wind-swept
grass aud flower with never a tin eau TO mar their
clean iness The old roads that cross them every
where are merely three ruts sunk deep in the SAND and
almost covered with grass and flowers. Along tbess
and through the sparse groves OF baby pines which
die almost they born, the island horses
trot mechanically while the ancient mariners who
drive them Yarn and Yarn and Yarn to tie heples,
summer boarder behind There is not so much diiv
ing as of old however tor rdcu lous little railroad
which doesn't PITY expenses now runs or rather
crawls from Nsntucket to primitive 'Sconset ano
carries of wnat used TO be the profits OF these same
ancient mariners. Their and jealousy are deeI
md whenever the adventurous Boarder shares tina
scorn and hires them Tor a"squantum" or picnic
to 'Sconset or Wauwinet, the island is hardly bis
enough 10 contain their Importance ano triumph The
Boardee l. taken possession OF, body and soul he Il
treated almost il he were not barbarian from I'm
civilized regions he Is even called Tot" anC
slack and-msrvellous condescenson =" Capn"
and then he fixed with glit,ering eye and th'
Yarns begin. When you 20 on squs ntum" yor
come back with nightmare indigestion OF clams
Holsters aud monstrous tales.
Let no aesthetic woman dream that she can buy old
furniture IN Nantucket either for song for dollars
Sypber and tho shrewd oottager OF Napoleonc
IA aha hal faIl Nov apIt hsna AZ
the many auctions appears quaint chair chest OF
drawers, but the market is practically cleared. A
queer feature OF the town is the night meatauotion
Billy Clark pervades the entire place all tho morning
with the announc .ment the afternoon the butcher
puts out trestle in front OF his shop and arranges
thereon comfort able bits OF meat adapted to the
sumption OF small families and in the evening the
auctionrer does his duty by the light OF the
As In most Arcadtns womau here is in the ascend
ant Professor Maria MITCHELL who IS atectio natelJ